Chapter 87: The Ever Changing Time Loop
Chapter 87: The Ever Changing Time Loop
“What the fuck just happened? Where’s Georgia? Pierce! Why’d you knock me over the head and throw me in a closet?” Alexander was yelling. Once he came to, he realized he was locked in a broom closet. He banged on the door until Pierce, and a maid came to unlock the door.
“I’ve been in my room, man.”
“Where’s Georgia?” Frankie yelled frantically. “Her room is gone!”
“What?” They all looked up to see Frankie running down the hall.
“I opened the door and their room is completely gone.”
“What do you mean gone?”
“I’ve tried to mind link her. She’s not responding to anything. It’s like she’s nowhere.” Frankie was catching her breath.
They all went down to Georgia and Alexanders room to find walls and a large opening to the outdoors as if the entire suite was simply removed.
“That wasn’t you? Fuck! I was so worried that we were being attacked again and Georgia was trying to warn me and I didn’t listen to her. You told her to stay in the room and not to leave.”
“That wasn’t me!”
“Well it sure as shit looked like you.”
“Stark.” Charles stated as he walked up the hall towards everyone. “It had to be Stark.”
“That means he found all of Georgia’s notes.” Frankie added. “And if he chipped her…”
“Where did he take her?” Alexander asked.
“My guess is back to his packhouse. But I’m also guessing he’s counting on us to find her.”
“Yes! We have to go get her.”
“Lexy is about to ask if this was the plan all along.” Rosemary spoke up. “We’re in a time loop.” She looked around at everyone standing in the hall then focused on Lexy. “And no. This wasn’t the plan. Georgia isn’t working for Stark. She’s seen his evil and will never go back to it. Frankie trusts Georgia and so do I.”
“And me, Lexy. She’s my mate and I trust her. You know better than anyone the power of fated mates.”
Lexy nodded and kept her mouth shut. Charles was just like Georgia when she met him. He was dedicated to Stark. But once he met her, once he understood the truth, he gladly left Stark and never looked back.
“Frankie. Find out how long the loop is. We can use it to our advantage. Goddess knows I’ve lived through enough of them for a lifetime.” Rosemary looked at Pierce and they smiled at each other in understanding.
“Ahh. That explains why I have an elixir note in my pocket. I’ll need to get out of the time loop. It’s short. It looks like he’s counting on us figuring it out and not giving us enough time to create elixirs or a plan.”
“What are the pros to having a short time loop for us?” Pierce asked.
“We can learn it quicker and we’ll have more time than he thinks.”
“No! Not the elixir! That stuff is awful.”
“We know, Max. And no. I can’t add cranberry juice.”
“Well, damn.”
“What if the con to having a short time loop is we can never get to Georgia?”
“Good point, Alexander. We’ll figure it out. We need to find Georgia’s latest notes. She’s been writing an awful lot lately.”
“I’ll check her room.”
“Our room is gone, Frankie.” Alexander reminded her.
“Shit!”
“Frankie, you work on the elixir so we can remember everything that has happened. Pierce and I will go check her office. Alexander, check in her lab. She might have left notes in there as well. I have alerted the guards on duty to keep an extra eye out and add more patrol just in case Stark has people watching us.” Rosemary took charge.
Alexander nodded and walked away from the group telling Lexy and Charles to come with him.
Pierce and Rosemary walked into her office to find everything in disarray.
“What happened here?”
“How could Stark get through everything undetected?” Rosemary asked as they both looked at each other. “He had to have come in here first. But how? This makes no sense. He had to have used a time loop just to get in here.”
“Maybe even someone who is here on the inside.”
“Noone would betray my parents.”
“Stark did. They trusted him.”
Rosemary gave Pierce a worried look and continued to look through the disheveled stacks of papers on Georgia’s desk.
Pierce started to look around and noticed the pottery on the shelves. He picked them up and looked at them. “I remember Max telling me that they had to reset certain items and clean up at the end of each time loop because not everything would go back to the way it was when the time loop restarted…”
“The broken plate in the cottage. I remember I found it and wondered where it came from.”
“Yes! So there might be objects that can withhold the time loop.”
“Okay, but would Georgia have guessed that he would kidnap her?”
Pierce shrugged. “She’s written notes for every other possible scenario, why not this one?”
“So, we’re looking for things like plates and bowls.”
“The kitchen!” They said in unison and both ran out to go down to the kitchen.
Pierce mind linked everyone to meet them in the kitchen.
A few minutes later, they were all assembled.
“Frankie, first of all, how’s the elixir coming along?” Pierce asked.
“Good. It’s suspended so if the time loop starts, the elixir will continue to be created.”
“Excellent. Now, remember when you told me that you and Max had to replace items after the beginning of each time loop?”
“Oh my goddess you are a genius! The plates and bowls!”
“Right, but how do we read them? What would Georgia have used to write on them?” Rosemary asked.
Alexander picked up a bowl and looked at it carefully.
“When we were kids, we used to send each other hidden messages. In order to read the messages we had to use either a heat source or an extreme cold source.”
“How did you know which one to use?” Lexy asked as she walked towards the shelves lined with teacups.
Frankie started looking through the stack of plates in the cupboard. “If there was a star, it was hot. If there was an O…” she turned over a plate, and a tiny O was written in the middle.
“Walk in freezer. Find all the plates with O’s written on them.”
“Babe! I found one with a star on it.”
“Ok. Put all the star plates together.”